Ryan Suter knows that a warm welcome isn’t coming his way when he takes the ice in Nashville on Tuesday night, so his teammates pitched in a little something extra during their morning skate to help prepare him for the inevitable.
After being drafted by the Predators, coming up through their minor league system and logging 542 games for the club, Suter left the team that raised him to join the Minnesota Wild in 2012 with a monstrous 13-year, $98 million contract. The Predators faithful were none too pleased to lose one of the faces of their franchise, and in his return to Bridgestone Arena last season, the fans let him hear it, booing him relentlessly every time he touched the puck.
Before the Wild take on Nashville for the first time in the 2013-14 season, Suter’s teammates wanted to make sure that their defensemen felt mentally prepared for his return to his former home. According to Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune, the Wild “humorously booed him during the morning skate the first time he touched the puck.”
Unfortunately for Suter, the boos will probably rain down on him a little harder and a little more often on Tuesday night, but the blue-liner can’t say he won’t be ready for the animosity.
